I keep an eye on it, James, and really plan to utilize this World Cup as an opportunity to learn more. So, your observations and this thread will greatly help! I'm up on all the main sports here, but there has always been a "put-down" element here towards soccer. Just when progress is made, it seems the "push-back" increases.
In fact some dweebs "stchick" is around a theme of putting it down.

"Step on the gas and wipe that tear away,
One sweet dream came true today!"

...nah seriously, I am supporting England. I hope Rooney will eventually be fine.

On another note, New Zealand's "All Whites" will be playing Brazil on Monday, as part of Brazil's warmup campaign. What a cool moment for our guys. Soccer is so badly-supported in NZ, especially by the media as all they care about is rugby, rugby, rugby. A lot of kids play soccer but there's zero representation and nurturing at higher levels. It's all rugby.. ah well I will be watching the World Cup with huge interest nevertheless - I'm a soccer fan at heart.

Well New Zealand lost to Brazil 4-0, but it wasn't all bad. The score was 0-0 until just before halftime when Ronaldo scored. NZ also had scoring chances at the beginning and end of the game. It was only 2-0 until the last 5 minutes of the game when a couple of late goals ruined the scoreline and didn't reflect the true nature of the game, where Brazil actually fielded their best team and NZ were able to both defend and attack successfully AND earn the respect of the Brazilians.

This will get the Brazilians thinking... how will they handle Australia? As we have a similar playing style to the Australians and we also beat them a couple of years ago, it provides a testing buildup for Brazil as the World Cup begins this week.

But it was a good week for New Zealand soccer, as we also had our first win on European soil, beating Georgia 3-1, drawing 1-1 with Estonia, but losing 0-2 to Hungary.

His "Word" segement last night had me falling out of my chair laughing. He said that studies show that soccer is becoming more and more popular in the U.S. - and the simple explaination is this: immigration.

"So what we need to do is go to Best Buy, find people there that are watching the World Cup on plasma t.v. sets, arrest them, then deport them."